New Orleans to Boston: The Road Trip

On September 1st, I will arrive in Boston and begin my 9th year of the 10 Cities Project. It’s been a long time coming, but with this move I come closer to this project’s fruition and the realization of a dream that’s been stirring in my mind for well over a decade.

To get to Boston, though, I’ve settled on a slightly different moving strategy. For the previous four moves, I’ve flown to my destination and mailed the majority of my possessions, what little I have, as I also did when I moved from Philadelphia to Costa Mesa. From Charlotte to Philly, I took a Greyhound bus that turned into an arduous day and a half journey. And when I moved from Costa Mesa to San Francisco I drove up with my girlfriend of the time, just as similarly, I rode in a moving truck from Kansas to Charlotte with a different girlfriend and her father.

For this move, I’m renting a car, throwing my boxes in the back and driving up the coast by myself. If I were making it a straight strip, I could do the whole move in 2 days.

But what fun would that be?

Once I move to Boston, the Northeast will be my semi-permanent home. Before that happens, though, I have an ideal opportunity to revisit my old homes.

6 Cities / 6 Days

The plan is to leave on the morning of the 26th of August and arrive in Boston on the 1st. En route, I’ll visit 5 cities, 4 of which are former cities in which I resided: Nashville, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia (for those keeping count at home, D.C. is not one of the 10 Cities, but I did live there for a summer). New York City will be the 5th. Obviously, NYC is the 10th city and I haven’t lived there yet, but it is my favorite metropolis and I can’t see passing up an opportunity to visit.

Hopefully in each city I’ll find time (and an internet connection) to write up a brief blog post about my travels.

In Nashville and D.C. I already have places lined up to stay. My stays in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New York are still up in the air. I’m sure I’ll figure that out soon enough. And if I don’t, well, I can always sleep in my backseat. Any kind strangers out there in cyberspace who have a couch they want to offer me would be rewarded with whiskey or some other lesser alcohol.

It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a solo road trip across the country. Let’s hope it goes better than my lastone.

I’m looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new ones, exploring former haunts and maybe even catching up with an ex or two (I could regret that). More than anything, I’m excited to grow reacquainted with the open road.